Picking Herbs
by Mundanealumne
Summary: Merlin is busy as the new Court Sorcerer, but he decides to take a day to simply go and pick some herbs in the forest to relax. When does his life ever go that easily?
1. Chapter 1

Merlin walked down the main road through Camelot. He waved at a couple of castle servants walking in the opposite direction and both smiled and waved back cheerfully. He was still somewhat shocked that the people accepted what he was after everything Uther had done to the country. People had been, quite understandably, shocked when he revealed his magic. He had played his part well; he was just the clumsy manservant to the king. At first there was disbelief from the masses, then anger, and finally acceptance. He had not believed that the anger would dissipate. There was of course the group that had rebelled against magic- against him. They claimed Arthur must be enchanted to allow magic back into the land. This group, small as it was, could have been a danger to the new peace in Camelot had Arthur not acted as swiftly as he had.

Arthur. There was another surprise. He had thought Arthur would rage and punish him in some way, but instead he had been calm. It did take some time for Arthur to be completely comfortable with Merlin actually using magic, but now it was something he enjoyed watching. He did, of course, get revenge for the years of secrets. He made Merlin the Court Magician. Merlin had argued that 'Sorcerer' or 'Warlock' would be more appropriate, but Arthur had replied "You do magic tricks, therefore you are a magician. I guess you will need a costume- ahem- _uniform_ for your new station, won't you Merlin?" and then proceeded to give Merlin the most ridiculous hat and robe he had ever seen. "This belonged to the previous Court Sorc- _Magician_ almost sixty years ago. I've heard it was the height of fashion. This will be what you wear to _all_ formal occasions." Lucky for him, Gwen was not as sadistic as her husband, so after seeing the awful thing she had the seamstress make up something more appropriate. Though, she did allow her husband his fun and did not present Merlin with his new robes until after the first formal dinner he attended in his new position.

He preferred to wear his own clothes, as he was now. Gwen had made him up new clothes fit for his station, but he only wore those when he had to. Today he was simply going out to collect herbs. It had been a while since he had a chance to just go out to the forests alone. He had many things to do, as there had not been a Court Sorcerer- he refused to call himself a Magician- for many years. Rewriting laws, compiling information on magic, and dealing with nations that Uther had broken relations with due to their views on magic were just a couple of the things that took up his days. That didn't even cover dealing with the magic users in the country. They were divided on whether to trust the royals. His identity as Emrys did help sway most, but some were so out of touch with people that they didn't know what to do. Those were the ones he had to reach out to. Finding them was the biggest problem; they did not want to be found.

Clearing his mind of these worries, he went back over the list of herbs he had. He only needed a few things for himself, but Gaius had a much larger amount he needed. Merlin was not the only one busy. Gaius no longer had Merlin assisting him, and had yet to find a suitable replacement. This had left him with little time to go into the woods, so he had been purchasing from the market for almost a month. The variety and quality were not as good as actually picking from the forests, as one needed to venture quite a bit deeper than most villagers were comfortable going. Merlin was happy to help Gaius out, as he had needed some time away, and his list would allow for a full day outside of the castle, alone, with no questions.

As he reached the gates, he noticed that there were more guards out than usual. There had not been any reports of attacks or danger, so it was odd to see six men instead of the normal three. Noticing Gwaine speaking to the captain on duty, Merlin changed directions and headed towards him. Gwaine saw him approaching and finished his conversation. Turning to Merlin, he grinned in the way only Gwaine could, causing Merlin to smile in response.

"Oh, the mighty Court Magician Emrys graces us mere peasants with his glorious presence. What have we done to warrant such a rare visit?" Gwaine smirked as he bowed dramatically to Merlin.

"Oh, ha ha, Gwaine, you are just the pinnacle of comedy." Merlin said as he rolled his eyes.

"I do try. So what has happened for you to travel outside of the castle? Normally you'd be up to your ears in paperwork. That is, unless the princess has something else for you to do. He does realize you aren't his manservant anymore, right?" Merlin did chuckle at this. Sometimes it did seem that Arthur forgot that Merlin did have another job.

"I am actually going to collect herbs today. Both for me and Gaius. He isn't as young as he used to be." Merlin grinned, knowing that Gaius was still fully able to do everything, but he couldn't resist poking fun at the older man, even when he was not there. Gwaine smirked, knowing exactly what Merlin was doing.

"Maybe I should go lend Gaius a hand. I'll tell him you sent me because you know that he isn't able to do everything now that he has entered his later years." He could just imagine Gaius' reaction to that. The look of horror on Merlins face hilarious, causing Gwaine to burst out laughing. Merlin glared at him and brought the conversation back to what he had originally come to talk about.

"I did actually come over here to see what all the extra security was about. I haven't heard of any danger recently. What happened?" Merlin said gesturing to the extra knights stationed at the gate.

"This is all a show the princess is putting on." Gwaine replied. Seeing Merlins confusion he elaborated. "There is a visiting royal that should be here either today or tomorrow. Apparently he is pretty snobby, even for a prince, so Arthur wants to impress. He hopes that all of this will stop any complaints, and hopefully he will tell his father about how awesome we are. It sounds as if Arthur wants an alliance, but there hasn't been one due to the laws of magic here." Merlin knew all about the visiting royals, but it had slipped his mind. He hadn't realized that they may be here as early as today, and told Gwaine as much. "Well they probably won't be here till tomorrow morning, depending on how fast they ride, but we heard that they have some of the best horses around, so Arthur just wants to be prepared. There is also the rumour that they may be bringing the princess as well, and according to these rumours she is gorgeous, so every man wants to get a look. We have no shortage of volunteers for extra gate duty."

"Well, as long as I don't have to deal with anymore snobbish royals till tomorrows feast, I am absolutely fine with not seeing this 'gorgeous' princess right away. Rumours are usually exaggerated, especially about royalty." Merlin thought about the stories he had heard people telling of Arthurs adventures and snorted. He always got a kick out of retelling them to Arthur and laughing about the ridiculousness of them. Gwaine was obviously thinking along the same lines.

"Yes, all the stories about the princess and you are quite exaggerated. If I didn't know you personally, I don't think I could recognize you, oh powerful Emrys." He laughed as Merlin turned red. Yes the stories of him were just as bad, if not worse, than Arthurs, a fact which the prat loved to throw back at him.

"Well, today I am simply Merlin, collecting herbs for the court physician." Merlin replied.

"Good luck being simply Merlin and collecting herbs, my friend." Gwaine said as he waved goodbye. Merlin waved back, turning once again towards the forest, and began humming to himself. Today was going to be such a good day- no prats, no paperwork, no stress. Just a simple day in the woods. He should have known that he never had a simple day in the woods.


	2. Chapter 2

Arthur sat at his desk staring blankly at the stacks of paper in front of him. Usually when he was dealing with this much paperwork, Merlin could be roped into helping with it; most of it had to do with the new magic laws. He sighed. Sitting here was so boring. He was king. Shouldn't he have someone to do this for him?

After scanning the same line for the fourth time, he realized that this would not get done today. Looking out the window, he remembered that Merlin was collecting herbs today. He started to make plans to go 'hunting' so he could meet up with Merlin, but then remembered why he was here doing this atrocious paperwork in the first place.

Prince Marco was coming to talk treaties, and he could be at Camelot at any point. He remembered how stuck up he was as a child, and the rumours about him certainly hadn't changed Arthurs opinion of him. There would be nothing here for him to make a single snide comment about, Arthur had made sure of that.

He grinned, remembering how he had gotten his men to stay for extra guard duty. The 'beautiful' princess. He had never met princess Emilia, but had heard the rumours of her, just as he had her brother. He did not care whether the claims of her beauty were true, but he did care that they had his men more than ready to take guard duty.

What many of his men did not know was that she did not normally leave her castle, and that was the most likely source for the rumours about her appearance. In fact, the prince was not one to normally carry out diplomatic missions either, obviously due to his personality.

Arthur wondered why the king would have sent them. Was it a test, to see if he would truly accept the alliance? It was strange circumstances, certainly. The king would usually be the one to handle an alliance of this magnitude, but had instead sent his two youngest children, neither of whom would take over the throne.

As he turned to try doing his paperwork once more, the door opened. He smiled as he saw his wife, Guinevere, walk in. She smiled back, and moved to kiss him.

"Hello, love. I thought you were busy planning the feast for tomorrow." Arthur said, as Gwen took the seat opposite him.

"I was, when I realized that you were up here all alone, stuck with all this paperwork. I thought you could use a distraction. Though," she paused as she looked at the empty space on the desk for completed documents, "perhaps you do not need a distraction after all." She raised an eyebrow at him in a manner much like Gaius.

"Well, you know, I- um- I-" She laughed as he spluttered out an excuse.

"It's alright, dear. I know how much you hate doing paperwork. Especially alone. I know you are only here because you have to be for when Prince Marco arrives. I don't think that you really have to be here today." She paused once more, and before Arthur could interrupt she continued. "The official welcome feast is not until tomorrow, and they are not supposed to be here until tomorrow. You are just paranoid that they may get here faster. If they do arrive today, I will be here to welcome them, and you will, unfortunately, still been on a hunting trip. You can go and follow Merlin into the forest and relax, instead of worrying about the upcoming discussions." Arthur had his mouth open in a manner unbecoming of a king, staring at his wife.

"How do you know all that, Guinevere? Sometimes I feel as if you know me better than I do myself." She giggled at the look on his face and responded as if she was stating the obvious.

"That's because I do, darling." She got up to leave. Before she opened the door, she turned back and said, "You best hurry if you want to catch Merlin. He's been gone for almost an hour already." she smiled and headed back towards the great hall.

Arthur jumped up and began to gather his things for a day trip into the forest. He didn't have time for a servant to come up. He told the guard outside to ask Gwaine, Percival, and Elyan to join him for a hunt, and to get horses ready for the four of them to leave immediately.

Merlin stood and stretched. He was already aching and he had only found two plants so far. He was really out of practice if this caused him pain. He scowled. It was all the paperwork he had to do. All day at a desk really made him unfit. He used to be able to do this all day and be fine, if a touch sore.

He looked around for anymore plants in this area when he heard a strange noise. Well, it wasn't really a strange noise, it was simply out of place. It was a horse running, and it was coming closer to where he was. Not many would come this deep into the forest, as all of the paths were quite far away. Perhaps they were simply lost. No, it was unlikely that a lost person would have their horse running through such deep woods. He had a strange feeling about this.

Glancing up, he saw a branch at just the right height for him. He grabbed it and pulled himself up. He climbed up several more branches, until he was sure that the rider would not see him, but Merlin could see the surrounding area well enough.

He focused on the sound and watched as a horse came into view. The horse was saddled, but had no rider, and was running as if it's life depended on it. Merlin tried to get a feel for the horse as it shot by, but all he felt was fear and fatigue. Something had scared the horse badly enough that it had run with no plan to stop. That was a terrifying thought. The other thought Merlin had that sent shivers down his spine was 'what happened to the rider?'"


End file.
